Beauty & lifestyle

Month: May 2015

So, if you ask a beauty junkie what their favorite makeup remover is at the moment, chances are they will mention the Bioderma Micellar Cleansing Water or some of the popular drugstore versions that have come out recently. Micellar waters have become so popular due to their ease of use and efficiency. In case, you have ever wondered how this ‘magic’ water works, in this post I’ll try to explain!

If you take a look at the ingredient list of any of the Micellar waters in the market the very first ingredient is… surprise! Water! This is usually followed by a surfactant /detergent and skin conditioning ingredients. A surfactant molecule comprises of 2 parts; a hydrophillic (water loving) head and a hydrophobic (oil loving but water hating) tail. When a sufficient number of these detergent molecules are placed in water, they come together to form what is known as a micelle.

Essentially, a micelle is a spherical structure with all the water loving head regions of the detergent molecules being in contact with the water around them, and the the oil loving tail regions on the inside where they don’t come in contact with the water.

Micelle structure in water (Image source: wikimedia commons)

These micelles are not visible to the naked eye, which is why a bottle of Bioderma looks like water and you don’t see globs floating around! Also, at this point if your freaking out at the term detergent/surfactant being used ..do not fear! The detergents used in micellar water are very gentle ones which do not irritate the skin ( its not the same type of detergent that is used in your dish washing liquid or bar soap!).

So how does this bottle of water with microscopic blobs work you ask?

Micellar waters are meant to be used with cotton pads. When you soak a cotton pad with micellar water, the cotton absorbs the water and the micelles which are no longer in water break up at the surface of the cotton pad. Since the cotton pad has absorbed the water, the detergent molecules get attached to the cotton pad with the water loving head region attached to the cotton and the water hating/oil loving tails pointed away from the cotton pad.

When you take this soaked cotton and wipe your face, the oil loving tails of the detergent molecules grab on to the oil, grease and makeup on the skin surface. Pretty simple right! As you may have guessed, if wearing heavy makeup you might have to go in for a second round since the tails might not be able to grab onto everything in the first round.

Hope you found this explanation helpful! Do let me know your questions in the comments!

Now that summer has officially rolled in ..it is time to change up your makeup game (if you like to change it according to the season!). I usually wear what I feel like wearing irrespective of the season but summer time I usually avoid liquid foundation and try to get a more glow y and dewy look. So here are a few picks from my makeup stash that I see myself using quite a bit this summer!

Summer time makeup

I just realized that I forgot to include sunscreen in the photograph above! oops!! Don’t forget the sunscreen folks! Its the most important item for your summer time makeup and skincare 🙂

1. Laura Geller Balance and Brighten Foundation in Fair

I love this foundation! I have the travel size from one of her kits and I plan to purchase a full size one after I run out of this.If you have no major acne scars or imperfections you can easily get away looking flawless due to its air brushing effect. It feels light on the skin and its perfect for the summer time 😉

2. Milani Baked blush in Rose d’oro

I am a blush junkie and this is one of my favorites! It gives you the perfect sun kissed looking cheeks. In case you want a closer look at this beauty, here is a pic with the compact open..

Closer look at my summer time loves!

…lovely right 😉

3. Bobbi Brown shimmer brick compact in Bronze

This is one of the most amazing products I own and it will last me a lifetime! Its the perfect highlighter/bronzer. You can also use the strips as individual eyeshadows for bronzy lids too. I like to use the top 3 strips as a highlighter and the bottom 2 as a shimmery bronzer.

4. Face Stockholm cream shadow in Chintz *

This is a pretty lilac-pink metallic shade which is great as an easy all over the lid shade. I love the ease of use and the color!!

5. Cover Girl Lash Blast Length in Black

Now, people either hate this or love this mascara. This is one of my favorite mascaras from the drug store. I love long fluttery lashes and this does the job quite well.

6. Blinc Ultrathin Liquid Eyeliner Pen in Black *

The tip of this eyeliner is great for a precise wing or for the thinnest line for your lashline. I like to cut down on the heavy liner in the summer and this is perfect to get the job done!

7. The Balm lipstick in Foxxy Pout

I usually avoid frosty/ metallic looking lipsticks, and this is the only metallic lipstick I own. I don’t wear this quite often due to its frosty nature but I think I can pull it off in the summer! The shade Foxxy Pout is a shimmery, brownish pink shade with gold glitter.

What are your makeup picks for this summer?

Until next time…ciao!!

Products marked with * were sent as PR Samples. Opinions expressed here are my own.

Happy midweek! If you are a regular reader, you might remember my REVIEW of an Anna Sui eyeshadow palette a couple of weeks ago. I have been reaching for this palette quite often these days and today I thought I’d share with you my favorite (and really easy) look using this palette.

Copper and dark green look

Excuse the oily nose because this was taken almost 12 hours after I first applied makeup..but look at the eyeshadow! It’s so vibrant looking even after 12 hours 🙂

The shadows in the palette have no names..I took the copper shade in the palette ( 5th one on the top row) and applied it all over the lid and threw in the dark green shade in the palette (4th in the second row) in the crease. The copper shadow is awesome in terms of pigmentation and wear time as you can see.

Throughout last week, I achieved two blogging milestones. The Tuesday 12th May marked the first post I ever did. I hadn’t actually posted again after about a month or so, and only started posting regularly from the end of August. Nevertheless, that was when the journey first started!

Also, on Friday 15th May I posted my 100th post! I just can’t believe it! So much has happened in the past year and I’m so happy with my little corner of the internet 🙂 There’s a lot that I still want to do and improve on, but hopefully that will come in time.

Most importantly, I want to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to read, comment and share. It is the time that you give to me and my blog that…

Happy Sunday! As you all may be aware, liquid lipsticks are ‘in’ right now with the matte versions being most popular. Rimmel did come out with their non glossy velvet lacquers a couple of months ago and before testing those out I thought I’d give the original lip lacquer a try! I picked up the showoff lip lacquer in the shade Nova.

Rimmel Showoff Lip Lacquer in Nova

The lip lacquer comes housed in a nice sturdy round tube. The bottom part of the tube is supposed to indicate the color of the lip lacquer, unfortunately I didn’t find it to be that accurate. Under store lighting, the pink indicated on the tube looked deeper than the actual pink color of the lip product inside. The shade Nova is a light milky pink with blue tones. Like I said in the store, looking at the tube I didn’t think it would be blue based (Generally blue based pinks don’t look nice on me!)

I really like the applicator which is like the traditional doe foot but with a dip/well to pick up product and to hug the lips better when applying. I have mostly seen this kind of an applicator in higher end lip glosses and liquid lipsticks, so it was a nice surprise to find it in a drugstore product!

The applicator

First lets talk about all the pros! I really like how pigmented the lip lacquer is! In a single swipe I was able to get a nice opaque coat on the lips. The dip in the applicator is able to pick up the right amount of product needed to cover the lips in 1 swipe from the tube. This also feels really comfy on the lips! I did not experience any stickiness nor did my lips feel dry as the day went by. Overall it feels light on the lips and you tend to forget it is even there!

Single swipe swatch and application on the lips

I have not tried building up the color on my lips since I am pretty happy the full opaqueness achieved with a single swipe. I do suppose it can get a bit gooey if over applied. The staying power is quite decent. It fades away in a non patchy way so it isn’t too high maintenance 🙂

The lip lacquer has a synthetic fruity smell which is really strong when you apply it. The first time I almost gagged at the smell since I generally hate such scents. I still haven’t gotten past the scent which is why I don’t reach for this that often although it looks nice once applied on the lips. However this is not the breaking point for me with this product, its actually the ugly white ring it leaves around your mouth after a couple of hours! I tried to see if applying less of the lacquer will help prevent that ring but sadly it does not 😦

These 2 issues stop me from using the Rimmel lip lacquer often, but if you can get past these 2 issues it is a really nice product that is budget friendly too!

Just 2 more days for the weekend! Yay! Today I have 2 really easy face masks you can try out this weekend to relax and pamper yourself after a hard work week 🙂 Now, the masks I am going to share here are by no means new or innovative; just ones I found very effective personally!

I have very dry skin which gets red and irritated easily (sensitive and fussy) and I got sun burnt a couple of weeks back (yikes!). All these factors made my skin care a bit more complicated for the past couple of weeks. I wanted to try something natural to sort of nurse my skin back to health and that is how I got hooked to yogurt face masks!

I tried 2 types of yogurt face mask for 4 days a week for the past 3 weeks and voila! My skin feels awesome..in fact much better than what it was before I got baked in the sun!

Before we talk about the 2 masks, lets chat a bit about the star ingredient.

Greek yogurt tastes yummy and there is enough research talking about how the probiotics in them are good for your gut health. Well did you know that it is excellent for your skin and hair? 😉 I haven’t tried a hair mask with yogurt yet..if you have, do tell me how it feels! I am concerned there might be some weird smell lingering around , if I use it on my hair. Greek yogurt is rich in lactic acid which helps moisturize skin and it also acts as a very gentle exfoliant by sloughing off dead cells. Another important skin care ingredient found in yogurt is Zinc. Zinc is commonly used in anti acne creams since it helps kill acne causing bacteria. It is also known for its mild astringent properties which help in tightening pores. Sounds good huh?! The 2 masks mentioned below combine yogurt with either honey or oats. If you want you can make your mask with all 3 together!!

1. Yogurt and Oats Mask

This is a simple mask combining 2 teaspoons of full fat Greek yogurt with a teaspoon of rolled oats! (you can adjust the proportion as per your liking). Use more yogurt for a thicker mask and less for a thinner, faster drying mask. I like to leave my mask on for 30 minutes before washing it off using cool water.

Yogurt and Oats face mask

Oats works great as a gentle scrub for your face once the mask dries and you start washing it off. If you do not like the scrubbing effect, try adding powdered oats to the yogurt to get the skin care benefits of oats. Oats contain beta glucan which helps to reduce fine lines in addition to being a calming agent for irritated skin. So if you have sensitive skin this mask works great!!

2. Yogurt and Honey Mask

Out of the 2, this is my favorite!! I find this to be very moisturizing for my dry skin and its good enough to eat ;). Again, you will need a teaspoon or more of full fat Greek yogurt and a teaspoon of honey. Give this mixture a whirl with a spoon to incorporate the honey into the yogurt. I like to apply a thick layer of this to my face and leave it on for 30 minutes.

Yogurt and Honey face mask

If you like, you can use Manukka honey which has special benefits (I’ll write another post on that!). Honey has been used for its wound healing and anti microbial properties since ancient times. The ability of honey to draw moisture from the air makes it an amazing moisturizing agent.

Do try these easy masks out! They are natural and you most probably have all the ingredients in your kitchen already!

I recently busted out my Lorac Pro 2 palette after a bit of a hiatus and I’m back in love with it again. It is one of my favorite palettes ! We are talking buttery smooth shadows, lovely colors and awesome pigmentation 🙂 If you want more details about the palette do check out my review of the Lorac Pro 2 palette HERE!

I usually don’t do intense smokey eyes since I have deep set, maybe slightly hooded eyes (?). Intense smokey eyes make me look tired so I always try to tone things done when attempting a smokey eye. The look featured here didn’t make me look like I haven’t slept in weeks and so obviously this deep set eyed girl is liking it! 😉

Smokey and Taupe-y

In the picture it doesn’t look as smokey as it does in person! But trust me its smokey!! 😀

To achieve this look I used 4 shadows from the Lorac Pro 2 palette.

The mix of shadows used

First off, I blended the shade Charcoal into my crease to create some definition. I then used the shade Plum in the crease and blended it with charcoal, also concentrating the shade Plum in the outer V area of the eye.

The star of the show is the shade Chrome which is a lovely satin finish taupe shade! I used this shade all over the lid and did not take it into the crease area. Lastly, I used a tinge of the shimmer shade Beige to highlight the brow bone area.

Hope your all having a great Sunday! Happy mother’s day to all the mothers out there!!